NORWALK, Ohio -- Greg Anderson thought he was bullet proof, until he found out he wasn't. Now the NHRA Pro Stock dragster is playing catchup after missing the first five races of the season. He began the weekend 11th in the Pro Stock standings, one notch out of the Top 10, which qualifies for the championship countdown at the end of the season.

In most seasons, one would expect Anderson to clear that one position hurdle with ease. But this season is different. "The top 10 cars are absolutely race-winning cars, every one of them,'' Anderson said as he sat and told his story to the media prior to the start of the NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park.

"It's a different year, and it's going to be a tougher challenge than other years,'' Anderson said. "I got to win races, or I'm not going to make it. I'm 25 points out of 10th so I can certainly make it in. But the cars I got to get around are absolutely as fast or faster than me. So it is no guarantee."

At the same time, it is safe to say Anderson, who won the last of four NHRA Championships in 2010, would likely be comfortably inside the Top 10, perhaps even among the leaders, had he not missed the first five races. But he admits there is nobody to blame for that but himself. Three years ago Anderson, 52, was told he needed heart surgery for a weakening heart valve.

But after further tests, Anderson talked the doctors out of that in place of regular six-month checkups to make sure nothing became worse. As time passed and the heart valve stayed the same Anderson believed he was fine. Then came the test right before the start of the season when doctors told him, otherwise.

"If I had been on the ball, I would have had the checkup in November at the end of last season, but I didn't,'' Anderson said.

He waited until just before the start of this season to have his test. Then got the news he had started to think would never come. "The doctor called me on February 1, and said, 'it's time,' '' Anderson said.

This was less than a week prior to the Feb. 6 season opener in Pomona, California.

The doctors told Anderson if the valve burst while he was on the track, "you're done. You won't get a chance to run to the hospital. You're done then and there," the dragster recalled.

Again, Anderson told the doctors to hold off, to see if they had tested everything right. "He finally said, if you really want to risk it, we can look at it again in three months,'' Anderson said. "In my mind, I had talked him out of it.

"I went home, and my wife, who was out of town when I went to the doctor's appointment, told me what a fool I was, and I would not be waiting three months.''

That was the wake up Anderson needed, and immediately set the surgery for race day, Feb. 6.

"You definitely look at life a little differently when you come to grips with this is life or death,'' he said.

What was supposed to be a five-hour surgery became eight, and afterward the doctor, "told my wife and family I bled horribly during the surgery."

Anderson had continued taking medication for soreness right up to surgery at the Sanger Heart Clinic in Charlotte, North Carolina, instead of stopping, which led to increased bleeding. That, in turn, led some to believe he had suffered a stroke because Anderson could not respond to questions for two days after the surgery.

"I could hear all the (questions) but I could do nothing about it,'' Anderson said. "I couldn't speak right. I knew what I wanted to say, but it wouldn't come out right. The third day I snapped back like nothing had happened.''

Not long after that the doctors told Anderson the now repaired valve was so far gone he probably would have died in the first race of the season. Instead, he was now in full repair.

"(The doctor) showed me a picture on the screen of my chest and said, 'what do you think of that?'''

The doctor had put titanium plates in his chest. The wires he saw were for a pacemaker. "They are in there for the long haul,'' Anderson said. "That's what got me back into the race car."

What was projected to be three months before he was to start physical of rehab became seven weeks instead. Four weeks after that Anderson was back on the track.

Now Anderson is climbing up the points ladder, sitting just outside the Top 10 with time to climb even more. But being a feel good story for the series and the sport is not the goal when the end of the season comes around. Anderson has other plans.

"People might look at it like it would be a good year to be in the Top 10, for what I've been through,'' Anderson said. "But I'm not looking at it like that. I need to win the championship."

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